Matt Guerrero
Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the appointment of Matt Guerrero to a judgeship in the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court. Guerrero, a supporter of SLO County Supervisor Adam Hill, has participated on social media pages that demean women and attack those who question Hill’s actions.
Guerrero, 47, of Oceano, was on the pathway to a judgeship in 2016. At the time, he was affiliated with a criminal investigation into John Wallace, a man charged with four felony and two misdemeanor counts of conflicts of interest, and Guerrero was passed over for several other candidates.
During his time on the boards of the Oceano Community Services District and the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District, Guerrero voted in support of many of Wallace’s questionable actions and verbally condemned several people who asked the district attorney to investigate Wallace.
According to the California Constitution, the governor makes temporary judge appointments until the next election, at which time the appointee must run for office.
There are currently eight seats on the local bench up for election in 2018. Five of the seats are governor appointed temporary judgeships that will become permanent if the appointees win the seats in the 2018 election.
Guerrero has been a sole practitioner since 2002. He was a contract attorney for the California Parole Advocacy Program from 2005 to 2011 and for Maguire and Ashbaugh as a public defender from 2002 to 2017.
Guerrero earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, San Bernardino. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge John A. Trice. Guerrero is a Democrat.
Total compensation for the position is $200,042. Guerrero is a Democrat.
It’s a dark day for SLO County when a toady like Guerrero takes office. Guerrero would do anything to get the support of anyone who would support his quest for a judgeship, including attacking whistleblowers and circulating falsehoods about volunteers and former colleagues. Guerrero has been consistent in two things only: a bald-faced pursuit of a judgeship and multiple poor judgment calls in his selection of staff at the OCSD and the SSLOCSD. There are only two possible conclusions as to why he is a multiple offender making chronic poor choices in friends and staff. The first is that, like his cronies, he has intentionally chosen weak people because they are easily manipulated and easily corrupted, as he himself has been. The other is that he is an astoundingly poor judge of character. Under no circumstances, ever, should anyone accept Guerrero if they have to go before the court. His dismal track record precedes him. I can think of nothing worse than having a corrupt judge in place.
Hopefully Guerrero will be voted out at the first election, voiding this error by Brown.
Governor Moonbeam’s Legacy!
Bullet Train, Bankrupt Public Pension System and now Matt Guerrero:(
12/23/2017 at 9:34 am
Apparently the Governor didn’t look to deep into Guerrero’s history. As a director of OCSD and SSLOCSD he not only played games with the Public Record Act and Brown Act, he did public records requests on the members of the public who were chosen to review the RFP’s of the investigative firms who bid on the John Wallace conflict of interest matter. He was trying to label them as “racists” — which is absurd and irrelevant to the work they did. He, himself, signed checks from SSLOCSD’s LAIF account for payroll (a big no-no) for that agency. Guerrero was instrumental in hiring his own aunt in the OCSD office and several sleaze-ball General Managers at OCSD who literally stole and figuratively (through incompetence) at OCSD (had to hire Paavo at $1M contract to get out from under that collateral damage) and an Administrator at the San. Dist. who has left a wake of destruction that is still being uncovered. The legal bills to clean up those messes were costly and in the case of the SSLOCSD continue to accrue.
Guerrero gave credibility to the those who have no credibility (Lucey and Walsh) accusing Mayor Hill of misconduct and pursued and investigation that found no wrong doing and cost upwards of $50,000 to SSLOCSD and AG ratepayers.
Personally, I am disgusted when I read that a Public Defender (or any attorney for that matter) blames the rape victim for her own attack and injuries (a broken wrist) — which he did defending the scumbag Cayucos firefighter.
The article doesn’t say what judge Guerrero replaces and if/how soon he can be voted out. Pay attention voters! Vote “No” on Guerrero. Hell, write the Governor and tell him he made a bad choice.
Julie nails it. Guerrero’s appointment appears to be an ironic miscarriage of justice. To cast aside his record, his roll in supporting the Wallace issue at the Sanitation District, is a callous and obvious affront to many in the South Coast. The Democrats in SLO County who advocated this appointment — including SLO County Supervisor Adam Hill — indict themselves for this significant lapse. Hopefully, he will become an objective jurist. But can the “leopard change his spots”? (Jeremiah 13:23) Guerrero castigated Arroyo Grande Mayor Jim Hill’s righteous exposure at the Sanitation District, an issue that is now being prosecuted by SLO’s District Attorney. I fear for any Republican who may appear is his court.
In the second graph from the bottom, it says Guerrero is replacing Judge John Trice.
Yes
And is anyone surprised?